"climate scientists suffered damage to their trustworthiness and credibility when they veered from describing science into calling viewers to ask the government to halt global warming"

Climate: Scientists struggle with limits -- and risks -- of advocacy -- 07/09/2012 -- www.eenews.net

As Krosnick has watched climate scientists call for government action, he began pondering a recent small dip in the public's belief. And he wondered: Could researchers' move into the political world be undermining their scientific message?

..."What if a message involves two different topics, one trustworthy and one not trustworthy?" said Krosnick, a communication and psychology professor at Stanford University. "Can the general public detect crossing that line?"

His results, not yet published, would seem to say they can.

Using a national survey, Krosnick has found that, among low-income and low-education respondents, climate scientists suffered damage to their trustworthiness and credibility when they veered from describing science into calling viewers to ask the government to halt global warming. And not only did trust in the messenger fall -- even the viewers' belief in the reality of human-caused warming dropped steeply.

It is a warning that, even as the frustration of inaction mounts and the politicization of climate science deepens, researchers must be careful in getting off the political sidelines.

..."It is thoroughly appropriate, as a scientist, to discuss how our scientific understanding informs matters of policy, but ... we should stop short of trying to prescribe policy," Mann said. "This distinction is, in my view, absolutely critical."